Vietnamese Sour Catfish Soup with Pineapple and Tamarind

What you need

• 500 g (1 lb) catfish steaks, about 3 cm thick
• 40 g seedless tamarind pulp
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar, palm sugar if you have it
• 200 g (7 oz) fresh pineapple, cut into small wedges
• 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
• 100 g (3.5 oz) okra, sliced on the diagonal
• 150 g (5 oz) taro stems, peeled and sliced on the diagonal, or use 3 celery stalks
• 100 g (3.5 oz) bean sprouts
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 red chili, sliced
• 1 handful rice paddy herb, or cilantro, chopped
• salt, to taste

Method

Restated from the original video

1. 1

   Rub the catfish with a pinch of salt and set aside.

2. 2

   Soak the tamarind pulp in 250 ml of hot water for 10 min. Mash it with your fingers and strain, pressing out the liquid. Discard the fibers.

3. 3

   Heat the oil in a small pan over medium-low heat. Fry the garlic until pale gold, 1-2 min. Tip it with its oil into a small bowl.

4. 4

   Bring 1.2 l of water to a boil in a pot. Add the tamarind liquid, fish sauce and sugar, and stir until the sugar dissolves.

5. 5

   Add the tomatoes and pineapple and simmer for 3 min.

6. 6

   Slide in the catfish and simmer gently until the flesh turns opaque all the way to the bone, 8-10 min. Do not stir hard or it breaks up.

7. 7

   Add the taro stems and okra and cook for 1-2 min, until just tender.

8. 8

   Taste. The soup should be sour first, then sweet and salty. Add more tamarind liquid, sugar or fish sauce to balance it.

9. 9

   Stir in the bean sprouts and chili, then turn off the heat after 20 seconds.

10. 10

    Ladle into bowls and top with the fried garlic and its oil and the rice paddy herb.

Imported from cookmorphosis.com. Recipe Grab pulled out what you need to cook it; the video stays where its author put it.